Project Rethink

I recently moved.  As a result my daily routine changed.

I have to take a new train to work, I have to shop at a new grocery store, I had to find a new place to get a cup of coffee.

I hate moving, it is always a hassle. There was nothing wrong with the place I lived before; it had everything I needed, and it was convenient. 

I knew that if I wanted to make things better than satisfactory it would require a lot of hard work. Nothing was broken, but I still moved.  

We have a tendency to fall into routines and learn to accept little problems.  

Now that everything is moved, my daily routine has a few new additions.  Before I was about 2 miles from my gym, now I am about 2 blocks.  The result?  I have gone to the gym more times in the last 3 weeks than in the last 3 months.

We need to shake things up a bit.  It’s harder in the business world, especially corporate.  These kinds of change typically only come with a change in management, a reorg, or a merger.  

Like moving, it’s hard work; but in the end sometimes you just have to get up and do it. Talking about it isn’t enough.

Before I moved I could have told myself, “I am going to go to the gym 5 times a week”–in fact, I often did.  But it wasn’t until I was proactive about the change, it wasn’t until I moved, that I was able to actually reach my goal.

Don’t expect change, don’t expect innovation, unless you are willing to shake things up and do things a little different.  Maybe a new vendor? Maybe an unproven business model or technology?

Change is risky, but without change we cannot innovate. Innovation is by definition something different; it requires a change. If you want to redefine your market, you have to make a change; you have to take a risk.

I was on my way home tonight and decided to take the subway from Harvard Square. As you can see from these pictures EA games went all out on the marketing of their latest game, Spore.  In these 4 pictures there are more than 55 unique ads.  What is interesting, only a handful actually mention the product.

This is a very good case “shotgun marketing”; but it also shows how an advertisement can make the consumer stop and wonder, “What is all this about?”  You can’t ignore them, there are too many.  But you find yourself reading all of them, trying to figure out what you are being sold.

At very least, it caught my attention.

The take away, catch the attention of your consumers. It could be in an ad, or in your final product. Innovative products get noticed.

*I apologize for the photos. I was in a hurry and didn’t have a camera, so I had to snap them from my iPhone.  The iPhone does well in some light conditions; unfortunately, subway is not one of them.

They were saying the right words, but I don’t think that Chrome is really all that “different”.

Recently I wrote an article about Google Chrome.  I think it’s important to point out that I was not blindly supporting Google Chrome; being a Mac user, I had to run it through Parallels.  However, I thought it a positive step towards the approach of modern browsers.  I feel that it is important step back and create something new; so I gave it a shot.

Over the last few days I have played around with Google Chrome, and have found it to be “ok”. Being a web developer, I was excited to see that they included some developer tools.  I was surprised to find that Google pretty much copied Safari’s web developer tools:

Safari Right Click:

Google Chrome Right Click:

Safari Web Inspector:

Google Chrome Web Inspector:

This is not what I had in mind when Google said they had a “fresh take on the browser”.  It seems, all they did was put the address bar under the tabs, emphasized the base URL in a domain by graying out the rest, and created a custom home page with your most visited items?

I’m just not sure it’s worth as much hype as it received and would love to hear your thoughts on the subject; please comment below.  What are your impressions of Google Chrome?

Google announced yesterday that they would be releasing a new web browser, Google Chrome.

Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.

This is the driving force behind innovation, as well as the goal of Project Rethink.  There are times when you need to step back and times when you need to start from scratch.  I encourage you to examine your products, or business models, and ask yourself the question — “Has this product evolved beyond our original intent?”  At what point should you rebuild from scratch to better meet the needs of your consumers.

I am not saying Google Chrome will be perfect.  But there is something to be said about having courage to stand up and rethink something as large as the “modern” web browser; to stand up and say–”Maybe this really isn’t that modern.”

From the Google Comic:

 

Walt Mossberg recently spoke at the Aspen Idea Festival about a shift in the perception of cell phone technology. Specifically he spoke about the iPhone, and the iPhone 3G. I want to be clear, as was Mossberg, this is not about the savvy designers at Apple, or their elaborate marketing campaigns. Remove the brand “Apple” from the equation, and hardware becomes hardware.  Whether it’s a Treo, a Blackberry, or an iPhone; their hardware is all “basically” the same.  The real difference between the iPhone and these other devices is their software.

More of the same, then something new

The iPhone did something unique.  The iPhone really isn’t a cell phone, it’s not even a “Smart Phone”. Realistically, the iPhone is a computer with a fully functional OS Kernel, a development API, and a graphics core; it just happens to also make phone calls.  I’m not saying it’s perfect.  My iPhone makes mistakes–battery life being one of them, a few dropped calls. I am not one of those people who thinks Apple can do no wrong.  The Apple TV has yet to “get it right”.  They still haven’t figured out how to bring digital content from the Internet to the living room–nobody has.  But Apple did do something right, and creating a completely mobile platform for third-party developers was one of them.

Here is an excerpt from Mossberg’s presentation on why the iPhone matters:

So What?

It comes down to taking technology to the next level–reinventing from the ground up when necessary.  A lot of people think the iPhone was Apple’s first crack at the cell phone market, but many forget the MotoROKR, which failed miserably.  After the failure of the ROKR, Steve Jobs decided they would have to reinvent the phone.  This Wired article tells the impressive back story of the iPhone.

So you have to ask yourself the question, “Does this device make it easier for me to do more with less?” Apple recently told the Wall Street Journal the App store brought in close to $30 million in sales during its first month.  Because Apple takes 30% of revenue sales, that means close to $21 million was distributed to third-party developers.

The iPhone/iPod Touch not only brings more power to the consumers, but also gives developers a unique opportunity to create innovative applications for the mobile market.  How can your product have the same impact in your market?